Cffile Parameters

Before we finish with ColdFusion's <cffile> tag, let's look at some important info regarding this tag.

When you use <cffile> to upload a file to the server, ColdFusion automatically makes a number of file status parameters available for you for that file. During the upload operation, these parameters are available in the file scope.

Here are the file status parameters:

Parameter Description
attemptedServerFile Initial name ColdFusion used when attempting to save the file.
clientDirectory This is the directory where the file is located on the user's computer.
clientFile This is the name of the file on the user's computer, including the extension.
clientFileExt The extension of the file on the user's computer. Doesn't include a period.
clientFileName Name of the file on the user's computer. Does not include the extension.
contentSubType MIME content subtype of the saved file. For example, the contentSubType for a Microsoft Word document might be "msword". This may differ slightly depending on your version of Word.
contentType MIME content type of the saved file. For example, the contentType for a Microsoft Word document is "application".
dateLastAccessed Date and time the file was last accessed.
fileExisted Whether the file already existed with the same path. Possible values: Yes/No.
fileSize Size of the uploaded file
fileWasAppended Whether the uploaded file was appended to another file. Possible values: Yes/No.
fileWasOverwritten Whether the file overwrote another file. Possible values: Yes/No.
fileWasRenamed Whether the file was renamed to avoid a name conflict. Possible values: Yes/No.
fileWasSaved Whether the file was saved. Possible values: Yes/No.
oldFileSize If a file is overwritten, this is the size of the file's size before it was overwritten.
serverDirectory This is the directory where the file was saved on the server.
serverFile This is the name of the file on the server, including the extension.
serverFileExt The extension of the file on the server. Doesn't include a period.
serverFileName Name of the file on the server. Does not include the extension.
timeCreated Time the file was created.
timeLastModified Date and time of the last modification to the file.

Note that file status parameters are read-only. They are set to the results of the most recent cffile operation. If two cffile tags execute, the results of the second overwrite the first, unless you have specified a different result variable in the result attribute.

You, as the developer, can make good use these parameters. In the next lesson, we will see how these parameters can be inserted into a database during the upload process.